Fire bomber plane puts out truck fire - GIF, photos, and video

[Jon]

A Canadair CL-415 fire bomber plane puts out a truck fire in Labrador, Canada. The truck driver got out and survived.




42-second video:

Here's a nice shot of a CL-415 dropping water:


And here's one refilling; note the water overflow ports under the wings:


More of the CL-415 water bomber in action:

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[mklotz]

Canadians will be happy to know that we here in Southern California appreciate their fine aircraft as well. In September 2009, a brushfire started in a canyon within sight of my backyard. The topography of the canyon made it difficult to deal with the fire using land-based equipment so they called in the air force. I took the pictures below while standing on my patio...

[neilabourjaily]

Watching the dump portion of the video closely, I think I notice the pilot feathering his props to finely adjust speed at the point of dump. Could be an illusion or a delusion.

[Toolmaker51]

A Canadair CL-415 fire bomber plane puts out a truck fire in Labrador, Canada. The truck driver got out and survived.

Crewleader: Watch out guys, water bomber inbound...
Crewleader to Aircrew: Zone clear.
SPLOOSHH.

Aircrew to Crewleader: It out?
Crewleader to Aircrew: Yep, out.
Aircrew to Crewleader: Copy that. Out.
Barely 5 seconds....wow

Aware of water bombers, never watched details of a drop, have seen them scoop live. What a spectacle in hydrodynamics, not to mention flat and level flight.
Clearly effective, nozzles, gravity and a bit of airspeed aerate water into fog just like fire nozzle. Is the water treated with any additives to break surface tension?

[Frank S]

It takes a good pilot to be a fire bomber just about anyone can learn to take off fly and land a plane with a few hours of instructions but to be able to belly in to a lake at speed and keep the thing from augering itself into the water while the weight of the aircraft increases exponentially with each passing second while skimming only a few inches off the surface means as soon as the chute touches the water power has to be increased relative to the amount of weight as the aircraft becomes heavier Some retrofitted planes have used hydrofoils which deploy with the chute to help prevent the slicing of the water from drawing the plane deeper.
Ideally once the tank is empty a quantity of surfactant or foaming agent is dumped into the tank from another storage unit sometimes you might see fire bombers dropping orange colored fluid on the fires this helps them to locate where they have dropped so the next bomber can start their drop before after or to the side where needed. Helicopters make great fire bombers in urban areas as they can hover and suck water from swimming pools and pin point drop right on the roof tops of burning houses sometimes using their suction/ drop tube to pierce through the roof and ceiling below

[Mi Tasol]

A longer version from a different camera is on Youtube. Having seen smaller fire bombers stop bigger fires it is obvious that this trucks cargo was something like tyres that are extremely difficult to extinguish.

[Jon]

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...r_fullsize.jpg

[mklotz]

A swept-wing, jet engine aircraft at low altitude and presumably low speed??? I'm sorry but that just doesn't sound like the right tool for the job. I would want a plane with a giant parasol wing (plenty of lift for slow speed flight and good visibility of the ground) and conventional engines, which, coincidentally, is what many water bombers look like.

[Jon]

Good point. Lack of resources?

I'm also partial to the aerial firefighting water refilling videos. 1:36 video of a Eurocopter AS350 refilling in a residential swimming pool. Portugal:

[Jon]